In our two-week Permaculture Design Course, we gather together to explore an internationally-recognized permaculture design certificate (PDC) curriculum with a grounding in spirit and a focus on organizing and activism.

Learn how it is possible to design human systems that mimic natural systems, using a minimum of energy and resources and creating real abundance and social justice. We will cover principles and practices for how to read the landscape, how to heal soil and cleanse water, design integrated systems, harvest water, drought-proof land, build soil, sequester carbon, make compost, compost tea, and biochar, and how to bioremediate toxins. Explore the solutions to climate change, and the strategies and organizing tools that can put them in place.

Earth Activist Training is unique in weaving social permaculture aspects throughout our course: learn how to organize our human communities and groups, how to resolve conflicts, make decisions, work together effectively, and sustain our spirits. Together we create a community contained by daily ceremony and interactive ritual throughout the course.

We teach interactively, not just through classroom presentation, lecture and discussion, but through games, songs, ceremony, guided visualizations, design practice, field trips, and a variety of practical, hands-on, outdoor projects.

Who is this training for?

We firmly believe that everyone can benefit from learning the tools and insights of permaculture to apply toward the broad goal of earth regeneration. Permaculture has solutions not just for landscapes and agricultural systems, but also for social design, public policy and survival strategies for these challenging times.

We welcome and enjoy participants of any age (though please email us to discuss attendance by those under age 16). There is no need to have previous experience with permaculture or horticulture, and we can accommodate a broad range of physical abilities or limitations. Please contact us at info@earthactivisttraining.org if you have specific needs you’d like to discuss.

Topics and projects covered:

Hands-on projects vary with weather and needs, but may include mapping, water harvesting structures, graywater or roof catchment, compost, compost teas, sheet mulch, plant propagation, planting trees and shrubs, seed-starting, introductions to natural building concepts and a collaborative design project. Our projects can be tailored to students of varied levels of physical ability and diverse ages and previous experience.

We touch on all the topics below, some in more depth than others, given the limitations of a two-week course. The overarching theme we teach in the course is not any specific subject, but rather how they all fit together into systems that can meet our human needs while regenerating the environment around us. At the end of the course, we will spend time providing resources and direction for taking your permaculture studies further and deeper.

We as Sieben Linden Ecovillage decided that we want to host a full Earth Activist Training in Germany (the first we know of), because we believe in the strength of bringing together activism, positive change and spiritual connection. At the same time we are very aware of the changing climate. Because of that we want to let you know the following: if you absolutely have to fly, we expect you to calculate what you should pay to offset your carbon emissions with this calculator: https://www.atmosfair.de/en/offset/flight/ and that you then donate the respective amount to e.g.

Of course you can decide to donate to any other Permaculture project in your area, too. But: please show the receipt of this donation to us once you’ve received a confirmation for your participation in the EAT. Thank you for taking care of the home of so many species (including us).

Ökodorf Sieben Linden

Starhawk

zur Person

Starhawk is an author, activist, permaculture designer, and one of the foremost voices in earth-based spirituality. Her twelve books include The Spiral Dance, The Fifth Sacred Thing, and The Earth Path, and her first picture book for children, The Last Wild Witch.

She has lived and worked collectively for thirty years, and her experiences inform her book on group dynamics, The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Collaborative Groups. Her latest book, City of Refuge, is a sequel to The Fifth Sacred Thing. The second-highest funded fiction project ever on Kickstarter, it became available to the public in early 2016.

Kursleiter*in

Starhawk directs and teaches Earth Activist Training which combines permaculture design certificate courses with a grounding in spirit and a focus on organizing and activism. She has been recognized by the Permaculture Institute of North America as a leading figure in the permaculture field and has been awarded PINA’s dual diplomas for excellence in education and permaculture site design.

Alfred Decker

zur Person

Alfred Decker is an award-winning permaculture designer and one of Europe’s leading permaculture educators. Since his first PDC in 1998 in California, Alfred has been involved with social movements and projects throughout Europe and the Americas. He is the founder of the 12 Principles Permaculture Design consultancy, Permacultura Barcelona and the Forest Gardens project at Can Masdeu; is a co-founder of the Spanish Permaculture Academy (Academia de Permacultura Íbera); and was a member of the European Permaculture Teachers Partnership and the Permaculture Council of Europe. Alfred holds a post graduate diploma in sustainable architecture and renewable energy (Centre for Alternative Technology).

After taking a permaculture teachers training with Rosemary Morrow in 2011, he undertook a two year mentorship and later co-taught six courses with her, ultimately earning a Diploma in Permaculture Education & Community Development in 2013 through the Blue Mountains Permaculture Institute (Australia). Committed to furthering the teachers’ training platform Permaculture Teaching Matters (PTM) that Rosemary developed in over three decades of teaching experience around the world, Alfred co-edited her forthcoming PTM manual and organised a successful crowdfunding campaign to develop the platform.

Designer*in

Alfred currently lives in with his partner Daniella Querol on a smallholding in the Montnegre i el Corredor Natural Park north of Barcelona, Spain, where they are creating a permaculture demonstration site and educational project called Can Comú. In the coastal mountains of Montnegre, Alfred is the co-director of the community biochar project Montbio, which won a 2017 Lush Spring Prize for Social and Environmental Regeneration.